The shop got interesting again; E-Type Jag. Some assembly required. LOTS of assembly!

With no new stuff to play with, the view in the shop was getting a bit pedestrian. That changed today with a new guest arrival. Welcome the "Crumpet Collector" to the shop.

I did not take this apart but I must somehow re-assemble it to a reasonable facsimile of a Series-1 E-Type. If I am being a bit coy about the vintage of this car it would be because it is a bit of a "Bitsa" car so it probably wont matter as it tries to defy re-assembly on principle and not provenance.

What is REALLY interesting is that I won't need the MIG welder for this project. This thing has Zero rust. Like none, at all, anywhere. 

Should be fun.

Pete

Looks like the right color.

I built my Bugeye by looking at the drawings in the Victoria British catalog. The only ones I'd seen in person were gutted race cars.

Your project appears to be heading for the proper color for a Jag! Love it.

I had to do this with a 1970 Duster once.

Try finding pictures of a completely unmolested 1970 Duster on the internet. 

Good luck!

Looks a little like the Targa Miata did when I bought it. Almost every part that went into that build came from a different car, so I am fully on board with the bitsa build.

The E-type is famously complex, so you have some fun ahead :)

ShawnG said:

I had to do this with a 1970 Duster once.

Try finding pictures of a completely unmolested 1970 Duster on the internet. 

Good luck!

You can't. You also can't find unmolested 97 neon across or 99 miata pictures. Just won't happen. 

Nohome: This will be fun to watch!

You saw what I started with on the TR6.  It was a pile of parts from multiple cars not sorted particularly well. Still, an E-Type is a much more complex beast.  I'll be following along for the entertainment and to convince myself I really do not want an E-Type.

jgrewe said:

I built my Bugeye by looking at the drawings in the Victoria British catalog. The only ones I'd seen in person were gutted race cars.

Your project appears to be heading for the proper color for a Jag! Love it.

My first restoration was a Bugeye. Figured I should learn to weld.

Funny you should mention color, that is one thing the body shop screwed up. Was meant to be more along the lines of this car since the goal is basically of clone of the race car below:

The underside, trunk and interior were all supposed to be painted body colour. I myself spoke with the painter and discussed materials that would be used to get the requested green color tinted into the coating in these areas. Then they sprayed it all black.

Having languished in the exact spot shown in the picture below for over 8 years, the request was that if they could just paint the firewall in body color it would suffice. The color was provided and lo and behold it came out as John Deere green. Go figure. don't get me wrong, the shop does good work, but they seem to be color blind for some reason.

That green looks a bit dark for JD green but it might be the lighting.

I was thinking that was John Deere green.

That's why most body shops won't paint without a paint code or specific paint selected. Too much risk of the color coming out wrong. Good luck it looks like an awesome and worthy project!

The XKE is one of the best looking cars - ever (and Enzo agreed!)

The bad thing about them is that they are a monocoque with subframes added front and back to carry suspension and when they rot they are far more expensive and difficult to restore than a body on frame car (I have owned Jags but always body on frame models except for a Mk 2 which was built like the E type and taught me to shy away from that sort og body construction).  You are VERY lucky that your car isn't rusty!

ShawnG said:

That green looks a bit dark for JD green but it might be the lighting.

Perhaps Coleman camp stove green?

Looks like rustoleum gloss hunter green....

My hot take:

The person who coined the phrase "a car is a penis extension" was thinking about an E type 

It is the most schlong shaped thing to ever ride our roads.  

They aren't particularly complicated (The Jensen Interceptor holds that title for 70's Brit tat) but there are a few things that can catch you off guard.  In particular, installing the front framework and aligning the bonnet can take days to get correct. 

We currently have nine of the wang things in the shop right now. two of which are bare metal tubs

In reply to Trent :

Thanks for checking in. About the front frame work ( or the "Jungle Jim" as I call it) That is a lot of tubes that need to be in the right place and I don't see any obvious way to verify if it is square and level.  Nothing is doweled or shimmed that I am yet aware of. To me it looks like the kind of thing I would want a chassis plate  and some tromels to assemble.

Any insight you might have on how to go about that would be most welcome. 

Pete

wspohn said:

The XKE is one of the best looking cars - ever (and Enzo agreed!)

The bad thing about them is that they are a monocoque with subframes added front and back to carry suspension and when they rot they are far more expensive and difficult to restore than a body on frame car (I have owned Jags but always body on frame models except for a Mk 2 which was built like the E type and taught me to shy away from that sort og body construction).  You are VERY lucky that your car isn't rusty!

 

Oddly enough, with several rustorations under my belt, the E-Type does not look any more difficult to rehab a rusty shell than would be the case for an MGB. I would certainly want to build a jig to make sure the front frames ended up where they should. If the mounting points for the front and rear giblets were compromised, I would walk away.

Worse than this would be the Austin Healy that is kinda-body-on frame but not really. 

I am looking forward with anticipation to installing the new heater tubes into the firewall/bulkhead!

In reply to NOHOME :

Is the bonnet still in one piece, or has it been broken down?

We do it on a Car-O-liner frame bench. We set the tub on the jig, set the bonnet in place so that the lines flow, ignoring the panel gaps, and the build a jig to hold the hinge points in space where they need to be. Then we can assemble the framework to meet that point in space 

The two forward facing square tube triangles fit pretty tightly without a lot fo wiggle space for adjustments.  The "picture frame" goes on next and then the bonnet hinge bits hang from that. 

Really, what you are shooting for is to not have a wad of shims on the bonnet mounted hinge portion. I have seen cars with almost an inch of shims on there. It just looks like poor work.

I hope you don't have to replace the pieces, the replacements from SNG and Moss are trash.

Hey, I just saw a commercial on TV for a new VW Atlas Peak Edition SUV, and it was a shade of green that looked like it may be reasonably close to the race car picture you posted earlier.  Maybe it will give you a modern paint code to start from.

In reply to Trent :

The  original bonnet seems to be in one piece, and in very nice rust-free condition,  so that is a good thing. Even knowing what little I know, putting one together from pieces looks challenging.

That said, my friend who I am helping with this wants to put on a fiberglass bonnet  that he  also has, because he likes his "race car" stuff. So I already know it wont fit!

Plan is to get it rolling first. I already assembled the rear suspension so that is ready to bolt in and seems easy enough to do until I learn otherwise, then move to the front frames and front suspension.

What I know for sure is that a year from now I will know a lot more about these cars than I do now.

My son and I were taking apart my old 1/18 scale BRG E-type this morning.

I know that colors aren't very accurate on the computer screen, but that sure looks like Jaguar green to me. Looks like Volvo green also.

Ok, here's some John Deere Green...

Just after I finished looking up Jaguar Green my MSN.com homepage popped up this Green Lister 12 cylinder XJ double 6 race car. The Rarest Performance Jaguar V12 Made! Daimler Double Six By Lister

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

Not to get too far into the weeds, but Harry Metcalf's XJC v12 is an amazing car.  It's also a beautiful shade of green.

Pete,

We usually have 1-3 E-Types at Eclectic and can get you pictures of things if you'd like. Just contact me at my name@gmail.com if you have needs.

We do a lot more minor/major service than full restorations these days, so Trent's more current than I am. However, I can say that if you're dealing with a pretty rust-free/crash-free car and don't have to use aftermarket parts, you'll do okay with relatively flat floor and a tape measure. Our website sucks these days, but we did an engine bay restoration/subframe repaint a few years ago and here are some links. 

https://www.eclecticmotorworks.com/2021/02/15/front-end-removal/

https://www.eclecticmotorworks.com/2021/02/15/reassembly/

Again, there are more pictures in our archives than on the website, so let me know if you're looking for anything.

And I agree with you that a Big Healey is much worse to do.

Carl

Regarding BRG, there are a lot of variations and the formulas seem to change. We usually get a few sprayouts for the customer to pick, as everyone has their own version of BRG in their mind.

The last car we did was this Miata-powered MGB/GT and we picked an Aston Martin color. I put a few pictures in different lighting conditions below. If you're interested in the color, I can find the code we used.

And I had a photographer friend who wanted to try some special effects and came up with this crazy photo.